Election candidates 2006/Charles Matthews/It
| User | Charles Matthews | |
|---|---|---|
| Real name | Charles Matthews |  |
| Location | Cambridge, UK | |
| Age | 52 | |
| User page(s) | en:User:Charles Matthews | |
| Wikimedia participant since | 2003 | |
| Projects in which I participate | en-wikipedia | |
| Languages in which I participate | English (translations to English, and interwiki) | |
| Link to user contribution pages | [1] | |
| My candidate statement | I'm standing as a candidate with experience and skills useful for the Wikimedia Board. I'm not a technical person, and have not been active on Wikimedia issues, preferring to focus on the English Wikipedia.
I come without any specific template for the WMF. For manifesto, I would say that we still have to match up some things. Implementing the best distance learning experiences, when we know that factual content is a Long Tail phenomenon (to speak modishly), means we have to be both cumulatively smart and better in the humanities. The aim is to become comprehensive, but also comprehensible and comprehending on a global scale. These are ambitious slogans. Background: I had 10 years post-doctoral experience in academia (1978-1989), at the University of Cambridge, with years in France and the USA. After that I have been a voluntary worker in a number of contexts, including publicity work and raising sponsorship. I have written two books (one conventional, one with a Korean friend published online), and over 100 articles. I have travelled, outside tourist bubble-wrap, in Japan, South Korea, and recently Uganda, where in June I gave a well-attended lecture on Wikipedia. I speak quite reasonable French, and some Russian. I have been a married parent through all this time. The role of the Board: what other online extended community gets to hire its own support staff? The Board has stewardship of the most important piece of hypertext ever. Some intangibles, such as 'wiki culture', 'motivational working atmosphere', 'adding worth', matter as much as money. The scale of Wikimedia projects now means that straight management sometimes applies, but the biggest challenge remains the harnessing of the folk writing on the wikis to projects in the larger scheme. In the day-to-day operation of the sites, this means not losing sight of the old-school way of thinking. In short, I have outside experience, communication skills, and a traditional wiki approach. | |
| For questions, please post here | User:Charles Matthews/WMF Board Election 2006 | |